Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

LA Times reports on Mono County’s plea for visitors to stay home

Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

The Los Angeles Times has reported on Mono County’s request that people not visit this area right now due to COVID-19, including tourists and second-homeowners.

The small, rural town of Lee Vining sits near the shore of Mono Lake. With a volunteer fire department and no medical facilities in town, patients are taken to Mammoth Hospital, 30 miles south with just 17 beds. This region cannot handle visitors right now; please stay home. Photo by Bartshe Miller.

The article quotes Mono County Sheriff Ingrid Braun saying “don’t come here,” due to the stress more people put on rural emergency services and Mammoth Hospital’s limited capacity to deal with COVID-19 patients. Since the article ran last weekend, Mono County now has 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Mono Lake, the Sierra Nevada, the high desert, and all your favorite Eastern Sierra spots will be here when this crisis has passed. We need to make sure that as many of us will be here too, able to come back and enjoy it again. Please do your part—stay home.

Click here for Mono County COVID-19 updates.